Description from Flora of China
Shrubs or perennial herbs, dioecious. Leaves alternate to opposite, petiolate, simple, serrate. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, paniculate or racemose. Flowers dimorphic. Male flower subtended by small, linear bract, pedicellate; calyx campanulate, 4- or 5-dentate; petals 4 or 5, oblong to spatulate; stamens 8-10; pistillode present. Female flower subtended by large foliose, membranous bract to which pedicel is adnate; calyx, petals, and staminodes absent; disk annular; style 1, terminal, linear. Fruit lens-shaped, attached to midrib of accrescent, membranous, reticulately veined floral subtending bract.
Two species: E Himalayan region to SW China; two species (one endemic) in China.